The Lawman's Yuletide Baby by Ruth Logan Herne

Author:Ruth Logan Herne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Coffee with Gabe.

Not a date, not a date, not a date...

Corinne muttered the phrase repeatedly as she headed for the café not far from the Thruway exit. The café in town was lovely, and she loved the Grace Haven diner, but both would be mobbed with people they knew. This one was just far enough outside town to draw travelers, not locals. Here they could sit and talk in relative peace without becoming gossip fodder. She parked the car and spotted Gabe, waiting outside.

Chivalrous.

He could have escaped the brisk wind and the growing chill by grabbing a table for them, but he didn’t. He’d waited in the cold for her, and that made everything so much nicer. “Hey.”

He reached out a hand for hers as naturally as if he did it every day, and that made her wish he did. “They’re calling for snow by midweek. And not a few flakes, either. The real thing.”

His hand clasped hers in a move so smooth she wasn’t sure where his skin began and hers ended. “Thanks for meeting me.”

“Glad to do it,” she told him, looking up.

Big mistake.

The minute her gaze met his, all she could think of was that near kiss on the deck, and wonder what she was missing by not kissing Gabe.

She dropped her gaze and spotted an empty corner table as they moved indoors. “How about that one? Quiet enough to be private, open enough to enjoy the carols.”

“As if we didn’t have enough of those today.”

She settled into her side of the booth and frowned. “I love Christmas music. I love the sweet ones, the romantic ones, the funny ones. I love hymns and carols, and I will admit to playing Christmas music throughout the year as the spirit moves me. Does that make me crazy?”

“The fact that you asked the question should be enough of an answer,” he teased, but she wasn’t immune to the sorrow in his manner.

“The pain of Christmas.” She said the words softly and covered his hand with hers. “When things go well, the holidays are such a joy. But in despair or sorrow, they become a sharp-edged sword. I’ve seen many a grief-stricken family through those first holidays after a loss, and it’s heartbreaking, Gabe.”

“I bet it is.”

His simple words agreed, but she’d read the anguish in his face over the past week. The holidays had a way of magnifying loss. She understood that from a personal and professional perspective. But Gabe’s angst had fired up the moment he’d found that baby at his door and hadn’t dissipated yet.

“Are you hungry, Corinne?”

She shook her head. “I stopped by the strudel booth twice today. Hannah Guerst’s homemade strudels are my guilty pleasure. Her shop is far enough away that I don’t get them often, but during festival time I eat as much as I want. My reward for a year of work well done.”

“Do you have a favorite?”

“Too many,” she admitted, but the question made her smile. “Anything with cinnamon.

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